Bernard L. "Buddy" Stein is an American journalist best known for winning the 1998

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for Editorial Writing for "his gracefully-written editorials on politics and other issues affecting New York City residents." He spent his career as the co-publisher and editor of

The Riverdale Press Founded in 1950 by David A. Stein and wife Celia Stein, ''The Riverdale Press'' is a weekly newspaper that covers the Northwest Bronx neighborhoods of Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights and Van Cortlandt Village, as we ...

, a weekly newspaper serving the Northwest Bronx. Stein and his brother Richard Stein were awarded the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award by the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

for courage in continuing to publish following the

1989 firebombing of the Riverdale Press The 1989 firebombing of the ''Riverdale Press'' was an attack in which two firebombs were thrown at the offices of a weekly newspaper, the ''Riverdale Press'', in the Riverdale community of the Bronx, New York City on February 28, 1989. The bu ...

office in retaliation for an editorial defending the novelist Salman Rushdie. He won the Lisa and Richard Witten Award for Excellence in Teaching during his last year at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in 2014.

Personal life

Bernard L. Stein was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, and raised in Riverdale, the Bronx, where his father founded The Riverdale Press in 1950. He was the editor of his elementary school newspaper, the PS 81 Livewire, and his high school paper, the Science Survey, at the Bronx High School of Science. Stein earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, then moved to Berkeley, California, enrolling as a graduate student in English Literature at the University of California but did not finish that degree. Stein was one of nearly 800 demonstrators arrested during a sit-in at the UC Berkeley administration building in 1964, in support of the Free Speech Movement. He went on to become one of the founders of the Berkeley chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, and to help found an SDS freedom school in the West Oakland ghetto. After leaving graduate school, Stein worked at the Mark Twain Papers, the largest archive of Mark Twain's manuscripts in the world, housed at UC Berkeley's

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

. Instead of staying six months as he planned, he stayed for 12 years, becoming a scholarly editor. He was responsible for establishing definitive editions of Twain's published and unpublished writing, including letters, notebooks, and the novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Stein was also a member of the editorial board of three radical publications: ''

The Movement The Movement may refer to: Politics * The Movement (Iceland), a political party in Iceland * The Movement (Israel), a political party in Israel, led by Tzipi Livni * Civil rights movement, the African-American political movement * The Movemen ...

'', a newspaper affiliated with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society, and ''Leviathan'' and ''Steps'', both short-lived, independent magazines. Stein moved back to New York in 1978 and succeeded his father as editor of The Riverdale Press. He became co-publisher on his father's retirement in 1979, leading the newspaper for 30 years. In 1989, the Riverdale Press office was firebombed in response to an editorial that criticized the Iranian head of state for placing a bounty on the head of novelist Salman Rushdie and also criticized American bookstore chains for pulling his novel " The Satanic Verses" from their shelves. In 1986, The Riverdale Press exposed corruption on the community school board that oversaw Riverdale's schools. It investigated the construction of the largest medical waste incinerator in New York State, in the Port Morris section of South Bronx, in 1991. The work turned into a crusade that led to the indictment of the chair of the local community board, a congressional hearing, and, eventually, to the dismantling of the incinerator, which contrary to its developer's claims, was poisoning the air. As a result, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, The Deadline Club, honored The Riverdale Press with its most prestigious award for community service. The Riverdale Press won over 400 state and national awards for excellence and was named the best weekly newspaper in New York State eight times during Stein's editorship. Stein was the second James H. Ottaway Sr. Professor of Journalism at the

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

in 2002. In 2005, Stein joined the faculty of

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

as a professor of journalism. He began teaching at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism in 2006 as well. During his time at Hunter College, Stein founded The Hunts Point Express, a newspaper and online news outlet staffed by students and serving the poorest neighborhoods in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

. At the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Stein founded a sister paper, the

Mott Haven Herald The ''Mott Haven Herald'' is a monthly newspaper that covers the Mott Haven, Port Morris, and Melrose sections of the Bronx. Founded in the spring of 2009, the ''Herald's'' news stories range from crime, arts, entertainment, and politics to the a ...

. Bernard and Richard Stein sold The Riverdale Press in 2008. Stein retired in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Bernard L. Living people Editors of New York City newspapers Pulitzer Prize winners for journalism People from Riverdale, Bronx Hunter College faculty CUNY Graduate School of Journalism faculty Columbia University alumni American male non-fiction writers Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, Berkeley alumni The Bronx High School of Science alumni Writers from Cleveland